Sleeping peacefully

You can’t help but smile at that soft snoring sound your baby makes while snoozing — it’s almost like purring. And who can resist that? If your child is older and makes a bit more of a racket, you may smile indulgently. Sounds a lot like Dad, right?

Snoring on the part of your child should not just be a source of enchantment and amusement, however. It turns out, it may be a sign of trouble.

Children who snore or who have other sleep-related breathing problems are more likely to have behavioral issues years later, according to a large population-based study in the April issue of the medical journal “Pediatrics.”

More than most parents realize, that sweet snoring may be impeding children’s ability to sleep, which can have serious behavioral consequences. An estimated one in 10 children snore regularly; while between 2 and 4 percent have sleep apnea, defined as abnormally long pauses in breathing during sleep.

For the study, researchers at the University of Maryland and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York asked parents about their children’s snoring, mouth breathing, observed apnea, and their behavior. They started tracking 11,000 6-month-old children, and continued periodically until they reached age 7. Upon analysis, the link between sleep and behavior problems was startling.

By age 4, children with sleep-disordered breathing were 20 percent to 60 percent more likely to have behavioral difficulties such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness, emotional symptoms, and difficulty with peer relationships. By age 7, they were 40 percent to 100 percent more likely. The more pronounced the symptoms reported by parents, the worse the behavioral challenges, the study found. What’s more, behavior issues were not always immediately obvious; sometimes it took years for them to emerge.

The study authors concluded that sleep-disordered breathing early in life has strong effects on behavior later in childhood, possibly because this is a critical period of brain development and there is the greatest need for sleep.

Disordered breathing causes abnormal gas exchange, interferes with sleep’s restorative processes, and disrupts the cellular and chemical balance in the body.

The study findings suggest that snoring and snorting during sleep may require attention as early as the first year of life. If you notice your little one is sleeping less than peacefully, be sure to mention it to your pediatrician.

KiKi Bochi is the mother of two and an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in family topics.